Hell Hath No Fury
by zelofheda-B
Summary: When Blake wants information on the location of Star One, and the Ferron women have an unusual request in return, Avon feels betrayed. Again. Written from Avon's POV.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Hell Hath No Fury

Author: Zelofheda-B

Rating: T

Fandom: Blake's 7

Timeline: Series B, directly after Gamit

Disclaimer: Blake's 7 and all recognizable characters belong to Terry Nation and the BBC. I am only borrowing for fun with no intention to profit

Summary: Blake wants information on the location of Star One, but in return, the Ferron women have an unusual request. Written from Avon's POV.

xxxxx

"Coming up on Ferron now," said Jenna. Avon thought her statement was superfluous as he and everybody else on board the Liberator had been tracking their progress, but he said nothing. Maybe Vila needed the hint.

"Zen, put it up on the main screen," Blake said, and the computer replaced the blank main screen with a view of the bluish-purplish planet.

"It looks cold," Vila remarked. "Zen, is it cold down there?"

But instead of answering Vila's question, the computer reported, "Attention. There is an automatic repeating transmission coming from the main colony on Ferron. There is a plague on Ferron. Ships are advised not to approach."

"Plague?" Blake asked, but Jenna quickly answered, "Zen, does this transmission have the word fiery in it?"

"Affirmative," Zen replied. "The message reports that the inhabitants are suffering from an unknown plague with strange, fiery effects."

"Strange, fiery effects? Like spontaneous combustion or something?" Vila moaned. "I don't want to risk it."

"You won't be risking anything, Vila," Jenna said, smiling slightly. "The message is false; it's meant to keep out Federation ships or anybody else who doesn't know the right response."

"Oh," Vila said.

"Would Lurgen know the right response?" Avon asked. There was hardly any point in continuing on to the planet if their target hadn't survived the initial contact. Though that left the question of where they would go from there, if they did not succeed in finding either Lurgen or his brain print. Blake was almost fanatically obsessed with finding Star One, and Lurgen was his only lead now.

"Who knows?" Jenna asked. "He might have had friends, contacts who could have helped him."

"But you know the right response, right, Jenna?" Vila asked, and Jenna smiled tolerantly down at him. "Yes, Vila, I've been here once before."

She glanced around the flight deck. "When you come to think about it, what better place to go for a man who knows the Federation wants him either dead or brain-wiped? A secret colony that specialises in producing weapons for the resistance?"

"Sounds pretty safe to me," Blake agreed. "Well, Jenna, since you've been here before, why don't you contact the colony … and give the right response?"

Jenna nodded. "Zen, open a communications channel to the colony."

"Channel open," Zen chirped.

"Ferron Base, this is Jenna Stannis with the watery ship, the Liberator. We'd like to trade, but not for weapons. Permission to come down and negotiate?"

During the long pause that followed, Blake smirked a little. "I've never heard the Liberator described as watery before."

"I assume that's the correct response," Avon stated, but Jenna only answered with a quick smile.

They waited, and just as Jenna was getting ready to repeat the message, the reply came. "Liberator, this is Ferron Base. Are you sure you want to enter our hot plague zone?"

"We're quite prepared to leave our cold, wet ship," Jenna affirmed.

"Then you have permission to come down and negotiate."

"Excellent," Blake announced. "Jenna, you come with me, since you're so good at this type of thing. You, too, Avon. Cally, can you operate the teleport?"

"Of course." Cally had been quiet since they'd arrived in the Ferron system, but then, Vila and Jenna had scarcely given anybody else the chance to talk.

"Will we need any special equipment?" Blake asked.

"Like what?" Jenna was surprised at the question. "I shouldn't think so."

"Weapons?" Avon asked, and Jenna shook her head. "Everybody comes unarmed to the negotiations. You can take them if you want, but you'll have to hand them over when we get there."

That didn't stop Avon from kitting himself out with one of the Liberator's weapons before joining the others at the strong room. Jenna was just coming out, holding a small bag.

"This should be more than enough to bargain with," she said, holding it out to Blake. But Blake refused it with a smile. "You keep it, Jenna. You know more about this than any of us."

Jenna tucked it into a pouch on her belt and Avon led the way to the teleport room. Cally was already there, setting the controls as Avon and the others snapped the teleport bracelets around their wrists. Once they'd stepped into the bay, Blake said, "Put us down, Cally."

The Liberator dissolved around them, and a series of low, white buildings came into focus instead. The buildings had once been inside a dome, but much of the structure was missing now, and aside from the man-high base wall, there were only a few curved sections left. The grounds around the buildings looked scraggly and unkempt, though they might have been neat once.

Sensing movement of the corner of his eye, Avon turned, pulling out his weapon, but it was only a dog, loping towards a stick on the ground. Blake gave Avon a reproachful glance, one that didn't need words, and Avon re-holstered the gun. The dog snapped up the stick and galloped back the way it had come to deposit its treasure at the foot of a small child Avon hadn't noticed before. The child – he couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl – picked up the stick, said something to the dog, and threw it directly at Avon. It landed short.

"I've never seen children here before," Jenna said with a smile. "Come on, it's this way."

She led them to the nearest building, the front side of which consisted completely of transparent material – windows that hadn't been washed lately. The door slid open as they approached, and they entered into a lounge area with comfy chairs and small tables. It was not only empty, Avon thought, it felt disused. After they'd waited expectantly for a few moments, Jenna said, "This is different. The last time I was here, they had guards."

"Perhaps they have automatic defenses now?" Avon suggested, glancing around the room.

"It almost seems like nobody's here," Jenna said, glancing around as well.

"Maybe there isn't," Blake suggested. "Could their response to our communication have been automatic?"

"I don't think so," Jenna said slowly, but Avon could see she was considering the possibility.

They waited a bit longer, and then a door opposite the entrance slid open to admit a woman of undeterminable age. "Oh … you're already here. I wasn't expecting you so soon – I didn't hear your ship land."

"We teleported down," Blake announced.

"So the rumours are true?"

"That depends on the rumour," Avon told her, and the woman nodded without smiling. "Of course. If you'll place any weapons you have here, then we can all sit down and negotiate."

While Avon removed the weapon from his belt and placed it on the side table that she indicated, he heard Blake announce that he and Jenna had come unarmed.

"You must have been here before," the woman said.

"I have," Jenna said. "My navigator and I met with Krell."

"Yes," the woman said, sitting down opposite Blake with a sigh. "Krell's dead now, I'm afraid. I'm Cilla, you'll be negotiating with me."

Blake made the introductions. "Roj Blake, Jenna Stannis, Kerr Avon."

"Famous names," Cilla said. "Famous ship. Well. What sort of weapons do you need in your quest to bring down the Federation?"

"Not weapons, more … information," Blake said.

"That's a new one," Cilla remarked. "What sort of information?"

"The location of Star One," Blake announced, and Avon mentally rolled his eyes. Did Blake have to tell everybody about his plan to find and destroy the Federation's secret computer base? Gossip travelled faster than ships, especially from a place like this.

"Nobody knows where that is," Cilla said instantly. "Not even the people who worked there."

"We know. We've been tracking a cyber-surgeon called Lurgen," Blake explained. "He's one of the few people who does know where it is, and our source indicated that he came here to hide."

"Lurgen," Cilla repeated thoughtfully. "Yes. I can give you information on Lurgen, but I'll want something in return."

"We can bargain," Jenna said, producing the bag of jewels. Cilla looked at it casually. "Before we start, I have one condition that is non-negotiable."

"State it," Blake said. Avon wouldn't have spoken so eagerly.

"You have two other men on board the Liberator," Cilla began, but Blake interrupted. "Only one. The other one was killed."

"Oh." Cilla paused, then added, "I'm sorry to hear that."

"What's that got to do with the conditions for negotiation?" Avon asked, and Cilla glanced at him.

"We want you – all of you men – to contribute children to our society."

Avon lifted his eyebrows, but Blake burst out laughing. "What? Where would we get children? We're not slavers!"

"Not that way," Cilla said. "We want each of you to spend the night with one of our women. They'll get pregnant, and you can get what you came for."

"Um," Jenna began, obviously wondering how to explain certain facts about natural reproduction that even Avon knew, but the older woman made a gesture. "You think it's not possible to ensure a natural pregnancy just like that, but we have ways of ensuring that it can be. That it will be."

"What … ways?" Avon couldn't help asking. He was still getting over the shock of her request and finding, to his great surprise, that he was intrigued.

"I don't understand," Blake went on before Cilla could get to the interesting part. "Why would you want this from us?"

"And what do you want from me?" Jenna put in. Avon thought that was a fair question.

"Nothing, from you," Cilla said. "Unless you're willing to stay a year."

Jenna reacted bodily, and Cilla smiled. "Don't worry, we won't demand that. Actually we have a surplus of women at the moment. It's really only the men that we need. You see, about three years ago, we were hit by a plague. It must have been engineered by somebody – the Federation, perhaps – because all of the men died, and even those women who were pregnant with male children."

"That's horrible!" Jenna exclaimed.

"And ironic," Cilla went on. "After so many years of us hiding behind the automatic plague message, it became reality. We've been trying to re-build our society since then."

"If it was engineered, then why not kill everybody?" Avon mused aloud. "Why leave half of you alive?"

"It might have been a test," Cilla went on. "Or an accident. We're not sure."

"And you didn't think of evacuating to another planet?" Blake asked. "I seem to recall several colonies that have many more men than women."

"We have everything we need here," Cilla said. "And we can still keep our weapons trade going, if a bit slower than before. Still, most people are willing to wait, and enjoy our hospitality while they do so."

"Why not advertise for men to come here, then?" Avon asked.

"Naturally, we extend that invitation to everybody who comes," Cilla said. "Are you willing to stay, for instance?"

"No," Avon snapped.

"Neither are most people. Though one or two have accepted. So, now you know our price for negotiations. Are you willing to continue, or shall we end this meeting now?"

"And the women?" Blake asked. "They're willing to go along with this? You're not forcing them in any way?"

"No drugs, no threats, no blackmail?" Avon pressed, glad that Blake had raised the question itself. Being forced into something was enough to ruin any activity, no matter how pleasant it might be in itself.

"Not at all," Cilla sounded quite blithe. "They're quite eager, in fact. You can ask them yourselves."

"Well, if that's the case, then I'm willing to continue," Blake announced, and looked over at Avon significantly.

"Just close your eyes and think of that great big computer at Star One," Jenna whispered enticingly, and Avon glared sideways at her, because that was exactly what he had been considering. Blake might have plans to destroy it, but Avon was hoping he could persuade Blake not to. They could use that computer. And it wasn't as though he disliked sex. In fact, he remembered it quite fondly. "I'm willing to continue."

Jenna grinned. "Vila's going to love this."

Yes, Avon thought, he probably would.

Jenna got up and stepped away from the others, then activated the communicator on her bracelet. "Cally, Vila, can you bring me up? Just me, not the others?"

Avon watched her disappear, then turned back to Cilla. Blake was leaning forwards as well. "Now, about Lurgen …"

"He's dead," Cilla said. "We buried him two days after he arrived."

"Dead!" Blake repeated, and Avon felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. What if they never got the information they needed and never reached the Federation's super computer?

"What did you do with his effects?" he asked quickly, and Blake caught onto the hope. "He had a brain scan with him – that brain scan should be able to give us the location of Star One."

"Yes, there was a brain scan with him," Cilla remembered. "We wondered what that was all about. But we buried it with him."

There was a slight whooshing sound where Jenna had been standing. Vila had arrived, but Avon ignored him. "Then all we have to do is dig him up and find it."

"Dig up who?" Vila asked. "And how deep is he buried? Blake, is that why Jenna came back to the ship? 'Cause I'm sure she'd be better at digging than I am."

"Jenna didn't tell you?" Blake asked, and Vila replied, "No! She just grinned and said you needed me down here. She didn't say anything about digging up dead people."

He paused, then added, "Who's dead, anyway?"

"Lurgen," Blake said. "And the brain scan's in his grave with him."

"Oh." Vila considered this. "Lucky they don't go in for cremation on this planet, eh?"

Sometimes, Avon thought, just sometimes, Vila said something reasonable. Usually at the most annoying times.

"Blake, wouldn't you know it, I left my shovel back on the Liberator," Vila went on, and raised his teleport bracelet closer to his mouth with the obvious intent of running and hiding from hard work.

"Actually, Vila, the Ferrons want you for a completely different reason," Avon told him.

"Me? What do they want me for?"

"Strange as it may seem, they want you to father a child."

Vila froze, and Avon enjoyed the look of shocked panic on his face. "What?"

"Obviously, they're not choosy as to how they replenish their population." Avon watched as Vila stumbled over to the nearest chair and sank into it.

"Oh, no, we're not choosy at all," Cilla said with a broad smile. "We even take Federation officers."

"Do you get many of those?" Blake asked, both anxious and curious.

"Well, by the time they get here, they're usually ex-Federation officers," Cilla explained, emphasizing the "ex."

"I'd be a better father than any Federation officer!" Vila sat up straighter. "I like kids."

"You can stop by and visit it any time," Cilla assured him, and Vila finally smiled back. "Can I have more than one? I always wanted a few little Vilas of my own."

"Perhaps you'd like to stay and found a Restal dynasty?" Avon suggested coldly, shuddering inwardly at the thought of more than one Vila in the universe.

"One man, one child," Cilla said. "That's another of our rules. I take it you are willing?"

"Oh, yes," Vila said, obviously not disappointed by the restriction. "I'm willing."

Avon glanced over to see Blake's reaction, but the man looked almost as eager as Vila. Avon wasn't sure himself how he felt. Sex was one thing, but children? He'd never really thought about them before; it was strange to think that he could soon have one of his own. But the idea also had its negative side. Close ties could be used against them.

"We want your guarantee that the Federation will never know that these children are related to us," he heard himself saying, and Cilla said, "You have it."

She glanced around, waiting for anybody else to speak, but when nobody did, she said, "Right. Now that we have all the facts on the table, let's get down to business."

It took a few minutes for her and Blake to work out an appropriate price, but eventually, both sat back in satisfaction. Blake counted out the required jewels and Cilla pocketed them, then stood up.

"And now for the other half of the payment," she said, and went back to the door through which she'd entered. She pressed the control to open it, then called through, "You can come in now."

Three women of various ages entered, and the men stood up to greet them. They were all beautiful in their own way, with their smiles ranging from delight to shy. Vila grinned back, Blake smiled the smile he always used in an attempt to charm and even Avon felt himself loosening up - much more than he'd intended.

"Where's Teyet?" Cilla asked, and the women looked surprised. The one with the shy smile said, "Was she supposed to be here?"

"Yes, she was." Cilla frowned disapprovingly, then took what Avon had assumed was a brooch on the front of her dress and held it to her mouth. "Teyet. Teyet!"

The sound that came through sounded like a preoccupied, "Hmm?"

"Come to the main lounge at once!"

"Already?" There was a pause, and then a slightly panicked, "Oh! Sorry! Yes, I'm coming!"

When Cilla had switched off, Vila asked, "Do we get to choose, then?"

"You may, since there are more of us than you," Cilla told him. "Or at least there will be, once Teyet gets here."

"I think I know which one I'm choosing," Vila said, and the shy woman's smile became more bold under his gaze. Avon was surprised to feel a slight sense of relief that Vila hadn't picked the woman whom he himself had found most appealing.

They waited for several awkward moments before the door slid open again to admit the tardy Teyet. She'd obviously been running, and trying to conceal it, but her heavy breathing gave her away. Tearing his eyes away from her chest, the next thing that Avon noticed was that she was quite plain in comparison to the other women; not ugly, but certainly not beautiful. Also, she was at least ten years younger than all of them, if not more. But like the others, she radiated that certain something …

"You were working with that computer again, weren't you?" Cilla asked. Although she spoke in a low voice, Avon was close enough to hear, and the word 'computer' caught his interest immediately.

"I was off-shift!" Teyet protested in the same quiet, but intense tone.

"That computer is not our priority. You're wasting your time and energy on it."

"It's my time and energy to waste," Teyet hissed back. "I exceeded my quota to-day, and I'm allowed to do what I like in my free time! This computer could be more important than you think one day."

"But one day is not to-day," Cilla said. "And you were late to meet our guests."

"Five minutes!"

"You should have been waiting with the others. Now forget that computer and at least try to look pleasant."

Teyet swallowed hard, then took a deep breath and smiled at each of them in turn. To Avon, the smile was both artificial and completely unnecessary. He'd seen true passion in her eyes when she'd been talking about that computer.

"Now you may choose," Cilla said, glancing significantly at Vila. Avon watched as the man stepped forward and extended one hand.

"Hello, I'm Vila Restal," he said. "You wouldn't happen to be a thief like me, would you? Because you've just stolen my heart."

The woman giggled, took his hand, and led him towards the door. Blake soon followed with his choice, and Avon was left with the woman he'd originally been attracted to, and Teyet. She'd stopped smiling and looked resignedly from him to the other woman, no doubt expecting to be passed over. Avon came forward and stopped in front of her.

"Well now," he said and put out his hand. "Tell me about this computer you're working on."

Teyet's face lit up again as she reached out to him, but before she could say anything, Cilla coughed twice. Harshly.

Teyet grimaced. "Duty first."

"Of course," Avon agreed. "Duty first."


	2. Chapter 2

Afterwards, Avon lay on his back. If his mind was working at all, it was generating only idle, random thoughts, a weak attempt to remember if 'duty' had ever been so all-consuming and so intensely satisfying. Curled up beside him, her head resting on his shoulder, Teyet was also still. Avon was just slipping into a contented doze when she stirred suddenly and announced, "Well, that's that. It's a boy."

Shocked into wakefulness, Avon asked, "How do you know?"

"I just know," she said.

"Like telepathy?" Avon couldn't help thinking of Cally, the Auron aboard the Liberator. Aurons were telepathic, but he'd never heard of anybody being able to telepathically communicate with a cluster of cells that could only be seen under a microscope.

"Something like that." Abruptly, she changed the subject. "My name's Teyet, by the way. What's yours?"

"Avon," he murmured.

"Then that's what I'll call him," Teyet said. "Avon."

Remembering the Federation, Avon said, "No." At her surprised look, he added, "That name is too well known."

"All right," she acquiesced, and then, just like that, the moment was over, the attraction gone. Teyet let go and moved away from him, and to his surprise, he found he didn't mind the loss of contact. Still, Avon remembered that there'd been something about her … now what was it?

Sitting up and reaching for his trousers, he said, "You were going to tell me more about the computer you're working on."

Teyet turned to look at him. "You're really interested?"

"Yes," he reassured her. "I'm really interested."

Teyet got up eagerly. As soon as they were both dressed, she led him out of the room and into the corridor, then used her palm to open a door to the outside.

"It's over here," she said. "In one of the buildings we're not supposed to use anymore. They want us to save energy."

It was night now, but there was still enough illumination from the other buildings for Teyet to find her way to the edge of the dome, where there was a smaller structure that was completely dark. She walked without hesitating to the door, which again opened to her palmprint. Lights came on as they entered.

"Here it is," Teyet said proudly. She walked to the opposite end of the long table and reached for a kind of helmet. "I'm experimenting with controlling the computer using only brain waves, not speech or touch."

"Show me," Avon said.

"I've got some sensors set up, like surveillance cameras, and I'm practising switching between them," she said, putting the helmet on. "Takes a bit of control … oh, there's somebody now. That's strange. What's she doing there – no, it's a man. Who is that? Is he looking for something? No, he's putting something down. Here, do you want to try? Is that one of your friends? What's he doing?"

She slipped the helmet off again and extended it to Avon, who put it on gingerly, not certain of what to expect. The room around him was replaced by a white blank.

"I don't see anything," he said.

"You should. Wait, let me try adjusting this."

The white turned gradually dark, and then suddenly he could see the outlines of the buildings outside.

"Do you see him?" Teyet asked.

"No." Avon turned his head from side to side. The "camera" view followed. There! Between two buildings was a shadow. "Yes! No, he's gone now."

"See if you can switch between sensors," Teyet suggested, but Avon was already taking the helmet off again. "This could be quite effective."

"When you think about it," Teyet added deadpan, and Avon felt a true smile come to his face.

"Quite," he agreed. "May I see the code?"

Pulling it up on the screen for him to peruse, Teyet asked, "You wouldn't want to stay here, would you? It would be so nice to have someone to talk to about something besides weapons and babies."

"No," Avon replied shortly, already caught up in imagining how he could apply the technology to the Liberator. He barely noticed when the door behind them slid open and a woman rushed in. "Tra—oh. Teyet."

Her voice went from concerned to faintly displeased. "You know this building's supposed to be off limits! Why do you – never mind! You haven't seen Travis, have you?"

"Travis!" Forgetting the computer entirely, Avon looked up.

The woman glanced hopefully at him. "Do you know him? Have you seen him?"

"If he's got an artificial arm and an eye patch, yes, I know him," Avon replied coldly, so that she would not get the impression they were friends. More to himself, he added, "I should have known he'd come here."

"Travis – isn't he the ex-Fed who wanted to stay?" Teyet asked.

"Yes, and I've been so worried about him that I even got someone to cover for me on-shift. He's in transition, and when I came back, he was gone. He could be wandering around delirious!"

"Or contacting the Federation," Avon suggested, and lifted his wrist to his mouth, pressing the communication button. "Blake, Vila, this is Avon, respond."

"He wanted to stay!" the woman protested. "He wouldn't contact the Federation, not once he's started the transition!"

"What is this transition?" Avon asked, but the woman wasn't listening.

"Oh, you couldn't come help me look, could you?" she was begging Teyet. "Everybody else is either asleep or on shift."

Teyet frowned, no doubt annoyed at the thought of being dragged away from her beloved computer. Avon knew exactly how she felt, and was surprised when she agreed anyway. "Yes, all right. Avon, you know what he looks like, could you help?"

"Where's his ship?" But Avon was already thinking ahead to why Travis would be here at all. "No, wait, where was Lurgen buried?"

"Lurgen?" Teyet asked, not comprehending, and Avon remembered that she had not been part of the discussion between them and Cilla. But the other woman said, "I know where the grave is, but why would Travis be there? He's already paid his respects, I took him there when he first arrived."

"There's something in the grave that Travis wants," Avon said. He realized that his communicator had been silent the entire time, so he tried again, louder. "Blake! Vila! Respond!"

At last, Blake's voice emerged from the teleport bracelet. "Avon, what's wrong?"

Vila chimed in almost immediately afterwards. "Avon, this better be good."

"Travis is here," he told them. "Meet me where we teleported down. I've got someone here who can show us where Lurgen is buried; I'll bet we find him there."

Teyet had already gone to a supply cabinet on one side of the room, and now she emerged with a torch in each hand. "We'll need lights. It's dark outside the dome. I'm sorry I've only got two."

Avon took the one she offered, and as they jogged back to the building where they'd arrived, he asked the other woman, "What is this transition you keep mentioning?"

"It's what happens when people stay here," she huffed, struggling to keep up and speak coherently at the same time. Avon slowed down just a little, and the woman went on, "They're sick for a while, but when they get better, they're us."

"What do you mean, you?" They had arrived at the building by then. In the illuminated interior, Avon could see Blake and Vila pulling on their final bits of clothing as they made their way to the door and came outside.

"They become Ferrons," the woman started to explain, but Avon was no longer interested. "Take us to Lurgen's grave."

"Maybe Travis can do our digging for us," Vila suggested as they raced to what had once been an airlock. It was wide open now, no barrier at all. The woman had taken the light from Teyet and now she led the way to her left, her torchlight bobbing up and down as she jogged. Out here, there were trees and bushes, but also a clearly defined path. Eventually, the trees gave way to a large, mostly clear area, and the woman went around to one side.

After they'd gone a few hundred meters, Avon saw a light flicker where a small bush had previously concealed it. He stopped automatically, switched off his own, then held out his arms to keep the others from surging ahead. Vila ran into his shoulder, almost knocking him over, but Blake managed to stop in time.

"Is that him?" Vila asked, thankfully in a whisper.

"It must be," Blake said. "I'll go around to the right, Avon, you go to the left. You've got the gun, I'll distract him and you fire."

"I'll wait here, in case he comes this way," Vila volunteered, taking the torch that Avon handed him. Avon drew the gun from its holster on his belt and moved in his assigned direction. Too late, he realised that the other woman had resumed running, and now he heard her call out.

"Travis? Travis, are you all–"

There was the unmistakeable sound of a shot, and then the thud of a body hitting the ground. Behind him, Avon heard Teyet loudly suck in a breath, but she didn't scream. He hoped she'd have the sense to stay down as he continued to move quietly forwards. The woman had dropped her light when she fell, and in its small circle of light Avon could see Travis' shadowy figure come towards her, still holding his gun. To one side, there was a shovel stuck upright in what Avon assumed was Lurgen's grave. Apparently Travis had not yet started digging. Now Travis toed the dead woman with his boot, then straightened up and looked towards the dome.

"Good-bye, Blake!" Travis shouted suddenly, then reached for something at his waist.

Several things happened at once. Avon fired, Travis threw himself flat, and something exploded with such force that Avon was lifted off his feet and slammed into the dirt a good two meters away. There was suddenly enough light to see by, more than enough, but for a long moment, Avon was too dazed to make sense of anything. When he could finally focus again, his eyes were drawn to the source of the light. It stretched upwards in a great column of whirling reds and oranges, all the way to the stars.

"What the hell is that?" It was Vila's voice, and then it changed from wonder to panic. "Blake! Blake's been shot!"

Avon started to get up even as Travis snarled, "He won't be the only one!" and a burst of pain in his right arm knocked him back again. Travis fired off another shot, which hit the ground just beyond his hand, and then another, which slammed into a nearby tree.

"No you won't," said Teyet, sounding as strained as though she were trying to pick up a great weight. Avon glanced over to where her voice was coming from and saw her on her knees, one arm extended in Travis' direction. Her hand was empty, and he wondered why she thought she could stop Travis.

Travis fired at her, but she moved her hand upwards, and the shot went over her head.

"What did you do to the city?" Teyet demanded, still in that strained voice. "What did you do to my people … my computer?"

"Column bomb," Travis replied, firing again and again and getting visibly more angry as each shot missed. "The explosion goes up and not outwards. Useful if you want to destroy something without affecting what's right next to it … and there's still something here that I want."

He must have caught sight of Vila out of the corner of his eye because he turned suddenly and shot at the thief who'd tried to sneak up on him. The shot missed, but by a very narrow margin. Vila yelped and belatedly threw himself to the ground. Scowling, Travis turned back to Teyet . "You can't keep this up forever. Any other questions before you give up and collapse?"

"Why aren't you sick?" Teyet asked through clenched teeth. "She said you were going through the transition."

Travis grinned. "I faked it. I didn't drink the water. Now come on, stop it. I'll kill the others, but I can let you live."

Clenching his own teeth against the pain, Avon pulled his injured arm close to his body and got to his feet. He'd dropped his gun and it was dangling down behind him, still attached to the power pack at the back of his belt. He fumbled for the cord, trying to pull it up, and called out sharply. "Vila!"

Travis shot at him, but although they all missed, one or two of the laser beams came much too close for comfort. Avon felt the burn of one as it slid by his already injured arm, but he didn't dare stop. He had to take advantage of the situation because Travis was right; Teyet both looked and sounded as though she were about to faint.

"You're good. But can you stop it if I do _this_?" Travis asked suddenly, and lifted his left hand as well, firing simultaneously at Avon and Teyet with his gun and with the laseron that masqueraded as a gaudy large-stoned ring on his artificial hand. Still not in possession of his own weapon, Avon lunged at him anyway, and they fell together. They both got in a few blows, and then something harder and much more painful than Travis's fist connected with the back of Avon's head.


	3. Chapter 3

Avon opened his eyes, slowly. It was dark. He felt dizzy and sick, and that was even before he moved. When he did, pain exploded all through his head and down his right arm. He fell back, closing his eyes again, but didn't black out a second time. After a moment, he became aware of somebody else vomiting, and the sound made him want to retch as well.

"It's all right, it's all right," he could hear Vila saying. "He was going to kill you, he was going to kill us all."

So, Vila was still alive at least, but who was he talking to? Blake? No, wait, there had been somebody else. A girl …

"Look, I'll get us up to the Liberator, you'll feel better there," Vila said. "Vila to Liberator – anybody awake up there?"

The next thing Avon knew, there was a light shining directly in his face and somebody was touching his neck. He jerked upright, grasping instinctively, and caught a hand.

"Avon," came a calm voice that he knew he should recognize. "It's Cally. It's Cally."

He hesitated, and the same voice came quietly into his head. _It's Cally. Do you remember me?_

Telepathy. Auron. Yes. He remembered now. He let go of her and managed to whisper, "Cally?"

"Is he awake?" Someone leaned over him. "I'm really sorry, Avon."

"Not now, Vila," Cally said before Avon could ask what Vila was sorry for. "Jenna, bring us up."

There was a moment of darkness, and then everything was bright. Avon blinked, looking around. He must have been unconscious again; instead of lying in the dirt, or on the floor of the teleport area, he was in a bed in the medical unit of the Liberator. His arm no longer hurt at all, and the pain in his skull had been reduced to a dull ache, but he didn't trust himself to sit up just yet. Instead, he moved his head very, very carefully and looked around. Blake was flat on his back on the bed next to him, and hooked up to more equipment than Avon had ever seen in use at the same time.

Becoming aware of somebody breathing on his other side, Avon looked to his left. The girl was there, curled up under a sheet so that all he could see of her was her face, and the tranquiliser pad on her forehead. He stared at her for a long time, unable to remember her name.

The door to the medical section opened and Cally came in, smiling when she saw Avon look at her.

"How do you feel?" she asked.

"I'll survive," Avon croaked. "How's Blake?"

"Recovering nicely, according to Zen," Cally replied. "And so are you. Would you like some water?"

"Yes." Avon thought he might do better to sit up before drinking, and Cally rushed forward to help him.

"Careful," she said, and Avon was glad of her steadying hands as a wave of dizziness hit him. "You had a head injury. I've used the tissue regenerator on its deepest setting to treat it, but you'll want to take it easy for a day or two. You probably still have a concussion."

"Concussion … from what?" Avon asked. The dizziness passed, and he straightened up as Cally went across the room to the sink and filled a cup with water.

"What do you remember?" Cally brought the cup to him and Avon took a cautious sip.

"Travis," he said. Cally waited. So did Avon, but nothing more came to him. Eventually, Cally went over to the girl.

"I might as well take this off now," she said, peeling away the tranquiliser pad. The girl stirred, but did not wake.

"What's wrong with her?" Avon asked.

"Exhaustion, mostly," Cally said. "And she was a bit upset after killing Travis."

"She killed Travis?" Avon wished he'd been awake to see that. Then a flash of memory came back to him and he said, "Of course. He destroyed her people … and her computer."

"What else do you remember?" Cally asked. "Besides computers?"

"What else is there?" Avon asked, and Cally gave him an oddly impatient look. After a moment, she said, "Avon, I want to run some simple neurological tests on you, and then I think you need more rest."

xxxxx

Avon hadn't expected to sleep after he'd returned to his cabin, but he did, and woke hungry. Taking that for a good sign, he walked to the dining area where the food dispensers were. It was early, still some time yet before the ship's artificial dawn, and he didn't expect to see anyone else about. But after he'd sat down with breakfast, he heard footsteps in the nearby corridor, and Vila appeared, leading the girl.

"Here's the food," Vila was explaining, and then he stopped. "Avon. I didn't know you were up."

The girl came around from behind Vila. He'd obviously already shown her the clothes room and she had changed into a different outfit, more somber than what she'd been wearing before. Although she looked drained and sad, she managed a small smile. "How's your head, Avon?"

"Much better," he replied.

"Look, Teyet, here's the dispenser machine," Vila put in quickly. "Any food you want."

Teyet, of course! That was her name. He remembered now.

"Vila hit you quite hard with that shovel. We were all worried," Teyet went on.

Avon glanced over to Vila, who looked extremely guilty.

"Sorry, Avon," he said sheepishly. "But I got Travis the second time, though."

"How very reassuring," Avon replied.

Vila hastily changed the subject. "So, um, Teyet, what do you want to eat?"

Teyet glanced from Avon to Vila, then went over to study the machine and make her selection. They ate in awkward silence until Vila finally said, "It's my shift," cleared his things away, and went out. Teyet had finished eating as well, now she glanced questioningly at Avon.

He looked back, realising only then that she had nowhere else to go. Her home had been destroyed and she was a refugee now. Blake would offer her a place on board the Liberator, of course, especially once he heard about her computer skills, or offer to take her anywhere else in the galaxy that she wanted to go. Would she want to go anywhere? Or would she want to stay with him, the father of her son? Avon hadn't expected to have anything more to do with her or the child beyond the next morning, but the discovery of Travis had changed everything.

Travis. The name brought back a memory of the man shooting at Teyet, shooting at them all, and Teyet kneeling there in the reddish glow of the burning city, her hand flung up and somehow defending them with nothing more than –

"Telekinesis," Avon said. "That's how you kept Travis from killing us, wasn't it? Telekinesis."

"We call it the power," Teyet said.

"What else can you do with it? Can you lift this fork without touching it?" Avon was suddenly more than just curious. "Stab somebody with this knife?"

"Avon?" It was Cally, coming into the dining area. "What's going on? Is everything all right?"

She glanced between them, no doubt ready to jump in if either of them were being threatened. Avon leaned back in his chair and explained, "I merely wanted to discover what else Teyet can do with her telekinesis. And if she's telepathic, like you."

"I'm not telepathic," Teyet said.

"You told me the baby was a boy. How did you know?" Avon went on.

Squirming a little, Teyet said, "Because I helped it along. That's what we do with our power – our telekinesis. We make babies. We reproduce. That's what it's there for – what it's always been there for."

"You're telekinetic on a cellular level?" Even Cally sounded astonished.

Avon found it more fascinating than anything else. "Is that how you killed Travis? On a cellular level?"

"Avon!" Cally exclaimed, but to Avon, it was a perfectly legitimate question. Teyet was very still now, and the colour had drained out of her face. Looking away from Avon towards the food dispensers, she said, "No. He was right, you know. I couldn't have kept it up forever. I didn't know I could manipulate anything bigger than a few cells, and it was so hard! It was like trying to shift an entire building with just your hands even though I was only concentrating on the muscles in his wrist. I was so frightened that I really would collapse, just like he said. Then you attacked, and Vila got the shovel …"

She paused. Neither Avon nor Cally said anything. After swallowing hard, Teyet said, "He was stunned, he was just laying there. He didn't even move when Vila pulled you off him. But he was still breathing, and I knew if he got up again, he'd kill us all. So I picked up his gun and I shot him. That's how I killed him. I shot him."

Cally slid into the seat next to the younger girl and put an arm around her shoulders. "It's all right, Teyet, it's all right. You did what you needed to do to keep yourself alive."

Teyet said, "But I shot him again and again and again, until Vila came around behind me and hit my arm. That's not doing what you need to do to keep yourself alive. That's …"

"Overreaction because of fear and stress," Cally said. "It's still all right."

"It doesn't matter how many times you shot Travis, it only matters that he's dead," Avon stated, and Teyet put her hand to her mouth as though she were going to be sick. But she took a deep breath instead, and then another one, and finally relaxed.

After a few moments, Cally said, "Oh, I almost forgot why I was here. Blake wanted something to eat."

"He's awake?"

"Yes, and doing much better," Cally said. She squeezed Teyet's shoulders one last time and got up. At the food dispenser, she glanced over her shoulder. "He said he wanted to see you when you were awake."

"I'm awake now," Avon replied, standing up as well. Teyet started to get up, too, then hesitated and sat down again. Cally said, "You can come, too, Teyet, or you can go up to the flight deck and keep Vila company."

"Keep Vila awake, you mean," Avon said, but it was a moot point, as Teyet chose to follow him down the corridor to the medical section. Cally had adjusted the bed so that Blake could sit up a little, and he smiled as they came in.

"Avon. And … sorry, I don't know your name?"

"Teyet," she replied.

"Teyet," he repeated, then turned his attention back to Avon. "We need to go back down and get that brain scan."

"You're not going anywhere, Blake," Cally said, coming up from behind with a tray of food. "You still need rest."

"I'm fine," Blake told her. Cally found a small table for the tray of food and pushed it into place beside the bed. Always willing to help, Blake reached out, but the movement caused him to wince and fall back. "All right, you and Avon then. Or Avon and Teyet here."

"I don't want to go," Teyet said, sounding very much like a little girl. "I don't want to see … him. His body."

"Of course you don't," Blake said, taking the cup that Cally held out for him. "I'm sorry. That was thoughtless of me."

"I think we already know where the grave is," Avon said. "It's just a question now of how deep to dig and if the coffin is locked."

"You can't dig up the dead!" Teyet exclaimed in sheer horror. "You can't – that's against the power!"

"We have to," Blake told her. "That brain scan has information that we need, and Cilla said they buried it with Lurgen."

Teyet relaxed a little and said, "Oh. You mean you're looking for the deadboxes. They're just under the headstones - you don't need to dig up the dead for that!"

"Deadboxes?" It was Cally who asked.

"If we bury something with the dead, we put it in a metal box and bury it just under the headstone," Teyet explained. "It doesn't offend the power that way …"

She let her voice trail off, perhaps in embarrassment. Choosing to ignore her last statement, Avon said, "Well now, that will make our job easier. I could even take Vila."

In the end, however, only Jenna was free to accompany him. Before Cally operated the teleport controls, Avon looked from her to Teyet, who had sat down in the other seat and was watching intently. Well, she might turn out to be useful.

And then they were on the surface, and Avon gazed around in surprise. Had Cally got the wrong coordinates? Nothing looked remotely like he remembered.

"What is this?" Jenna asked, surveying the landscape in dismay. Everything was covered in a thick layer of what appeared to be black snow. No, Avon thought, it was too warm for snow, and it smelled … burnt?

"Ash," he realised. "It's ash from the dome."

Disgusted, Jenna said, "I can't believe even Travis would destroy an entire city just in the hope of killing off Blake."

"I can," Avon stated, looking automatically to where he thought the dome had once been. The ash had stopped falling, but the skies were thick and grey, and he couldn't see much of anything besides blackened tree shapes.

"And how are we supposed to find Lurgen's grave in this?" Jenna asked, kicking at the ash with one foot. "Or even that shovel that Travis had?"

The shovel. Avon remembered seeing it, marking the grave, and now he glanced around in the hopes of finding it again. No, wait, Vila had used it to clobber them both. Had he just tossed it away afterwards? There! A few meters away, there was a man-sized bulge under the ash with something long and thin sticking up from it at an odd angle. Avon walked over and used his boot to shake the ash from it. As he'd thought, it was the handle of the shovel.

"Is that Travis?" Jenna had come up from behind him. Avon cleared some of the ash away from the body so that they could make a positive identification. It was not a pretty sight.

"Urgh," Jenna said. "No wonder Teyet was hysterical when we brought her on board."

Not remembering that part, Avon changed the subject. "Travis was close to the grave when we found him. Let's start here and work our way outwards. The headstone shouldn't take too long to find."

He began sweeping the ash away with the blade of the shovel. Jenna watched him for a moment, then walked over to the nearest tree and blasted off one of the leafier branches with her gun. Using the branch as a makeshift broom, she started work on the other side of the body. They worked in silence until Jenna finally asked, "Is this it?"

Avon had reached the other body, the one of the woman who had been searching for Travis, and was about to pull her aside to read the headstone she'd fallen onto. Now he straightened up, and a wave of dizziness hit him, bringing a headache with it. He hesitated for a moment, regaining his balance, and was annoyed to see Jenna looking concernedly at him.

"Are you all right?" she asked.

"I'm fine," he replied.

"Vila said he practically took your head off with that shovel," Jenna remarked, watching him carefully as he made his way over to see the headstone she'd uncovered.

"You know how Vila exaggerates," Avon said, trying not to snarl. The headstone was engraved only with Lurgen's name and the date of his death.

"I also know how serious head injuries can be." Jenna reached out and took the shovel from his unresisting hand. "Here, give me that. I'll do the digging."

The deadbox was indeed directly under the headstone, and Jenna easily lifted it out. It wasn't even locked; she opened the lid then held the box out at an angle so that Avon could also see. The brain scan was the only thing in it.

"Well, that was quick and easy," Jenna said, reaching in to pick it up. "Let's just hope it has the information on it that Blake wants, because there's nobody left now to ask."

"Yes," Avon said, and lifted his teleport bracelet to his mouth. "This is Avon. Cally, you can bring us up now."

And the now-grey landscape of Ferron disappeared forever from around him.


	4. Chapter 4

Back on board the Liberator, Teyet was still sitting with Cally at the teleport controls, and Avon wondered if Cally had been showing her how it worked. When Teyet opened her mouth to speak, Avon expected a technical question, but instead, she asked, "You didn't see any survivors, did you?"

"No," he replied, and Jenna added, "There's no way anybody could have survived … that."

"I thought maybe somebody else had been outside the dome, like we were," Teyet said, but then she shook her head. "No, of course not. The only time we go out … the only time we went out was for funerals."

"Well," said Avon. "Let's get Zen and Orac to scan this and see if it tells us where Star One is located."

They went to the flight deck, where Vila was uncharacteristically awake, and while Jenna positioned the brain scan, Avon walked over to where Orac rested on a table near the circle of seats. After plugging in Orac's activation key, he said, "Zen, Orac, I want you to see if you can find the location of Star One from this brain scan."

"Scanning," Zen announced.

"What is that?" Teyet asked, coming around to look at the plasticene box with its arrays of tubes and wires. "Is that a computer?"

"I am Orac, the most advanced computer in the galaxy," Orac corrected in his usual arrogant tone.

"Highly sophisticated, but still, just a tool," Avon corrected it, and Orac made an indignant sound before moving on to the requested information.

"The scan is complete. According to the information given, Star One is in the eleventh sector, grid reference C-17320."

"So he really did know," Vila said softly.

"Did you doubt it, Vila?" Avon asked.

"Didn't you?" Vila shot back, and Jenna broke in. "We'd better tell Blake, then."

"Yes," Avon said, turning away from Zen's display a little too quickly. The dizziness hit him again and he staggered, his headache increasing exponentially.

"Avon?" Teyet stepped forward and put her arm around his waist. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," he snapped. With an effort, he straightened up. Yes, the dizziness was passing now, only the headache remained.

"I'm fine," he repeated in a much softer tone of voice, and gently disengaged himself from Teyet's embrace. She let go hesitantly, looking up at him with concern.

"You look like you're going to fall down any second," Vila said as Avon went up the steps that led to the corridor. He ignored the remark, and told himself he'd get a painkiller from the medical section as soon as he'd made his report to Blake. Or perhaps before.

Cally was just coming out of the medical section when he got there.

"Blake's asleep," she said. Too late, Avon reached out to stop her pulling the door shut.

"I need a painkiller," he said.

"I'll get you one. Though if you need one, you probably need more rest, too." Cally pushed the door open again. Avon followed her into the now dimly-lit room, and was aware of Teyet following both of them. With a flash of annoyance, he wondered if she were going to trail around after him forever.

"Can I get some water?" Teyet whispered as Cally opened a cabinet to find the medication. "I'm so thirsty. The air up here must be drying me out."

Avon glanced automatically towards Blake, but there was no movement from the bed. Cally gave him a pill, then filled two cups with water and held them out. Teyet took hers first and drained it almost before Avon had got his to his mouth.

"It tastes different than our water," she remarked.

"It's recycled," Avon told her, swallowing the pill.

"And purified," Cally said, no doubt thinking that Teyet might be squeamish about what recycled water contained. "Do you want some more?"

"I'll get it," Teyet offered, and while she was filling her cup again, Cally said quietly, "Do you have any other symptoms besides headache, Avon?"

"I'm fine," Avon responded automatically, a bit harsher than he'd intended.

Cally frowned. "Irritability is also a symptom of concussion, Avon, although if that were the only symptom, then you have been concussed ever since I met you."

Teyet laughed aloud, and although she stopped when Avon glared at her, her eyes continued to twinkle in delight. When she spoke, however, her voice sounded normal and not filled with secret mirth. "He was dizzy on the flight deck – he almost fell down."

"I shouldn't have let you go down to the planet," Cally said. "Liberator's medical equipment did what it could, but some things just take time. And rest."

Avon knew deep down that she was right, but he was still feeling irritable enough that he didn't want to admit it. With something close to a snarl, he said, "I will do as I see fit."

"Avon?" It was Blake. "Did you get the brain scan?"

Cally sighed and shot Avon an irritated look of her own, then went over to the bed. "I'm sorry if we woke you, Blake."

"I wasn't asleep," he protested. "I was just resting while I waited. Avon?"

"Yes, Blake, we have the brain scan." Avon had followed Cally over. "And Star One is in the eleventh sector."

Blake smiled broadly. "Are we on course?"

"Not yet," Avon admitted.

"You want more time to persuade me not to destroy it," Blake said. "But nobody should have that much power, Avon. Not you, not me, and especially not the Federation."

"Neither of you are in any shape to discuss this again," Cally said firmly, and Blake slumped back against his pillow with another, softer smile.

"You're probably right, Cally," he said. "But just one more thing."

"What is it?" Avon asked, still touchy.

To his surprise, Blake looked beyond him. "Teyet? Has Avon spoken to you about whether you'd like to stay with us?"

"I've hardly had the chance," Avon protested at the same time that Teyet said, "No."

"You probably know we're all wanted by the Federation. I wouldn't blame you if you wanted us to take you somewhere else. But you're also welcome to stay with us. It's your choice."

"I never thought I'd ever go somewhere else," Teyet said. "Hardly any of us do – did." She frowned. "I wouldn't know where to go."

"I have some friends on various planets," Blake said. "I could tell you about them before you decide. Why don't you take some time, discuss it with Avon, and see what you think?"

Hesitantly, Teyet said, "I'll think about it but … I might want to stay here. Avon likes computers, too, you know."

Blake laughed, then curled up, clutching his abdomen and making sounds of pain crossed with continued laughter. "Ow, ow, ow, Teyet, that's the biggest understatement, ow, ow, I've ever heard."

Even Cally was smiling as she ushered them out. Avon shut the door, cutting off the sound of her question to Blake about whether he wanted another painkiller, then glanced down at Teyet. "We can have our discussion later, when I am not so dizzy. Why don't you go back to the flight deck and talk to Orac? It might have some ideas for your brain wave project."

"Where will you be?" Teyet asked.

"In my cabin," he replied. "Resting."

"I thought you told Cally you'd do as you saw fit?"

"Well now, I never said I didn't see fit to rest," Avon announced.

Teyet gave him a quick smile, then went off. Waiting until she'd gone, Avon turned in the opposite direction, but he'd barely taken two steps when the entire ship shuddered and knocked him off balance. He clutched at the wall for support, then fell to his knees when the ship rocked again. In the ensuing pause, Avon got shakily to his feet and stumbled to the flight deck.

"What the hell is going on?" he demanded as he emerged.

"Federation pursuit ships!" Vila replied.

"I've got this." Jenna had come in from the other side; Vila slipped by her and took up his usual position. Avon went to his station as well. "Zen, battle computers on-line!"

"Battle computers are already on-line," Zen remarked, and Vila said, "Give me some credit here!"

"Clear the neutron blasters for firing!" Jenna went on, ignoring the remark. "And radiation flare shields up."

"Radiation flare shields up, neutron blasters cleared," Vila reported. "This is all Travis' fault – I just know it."

"Shut up, target the nearest ship and fire!" Avon commanded.

By the time the battle ended, two of the Federation ships had been destroyed, and the third one was limping away, no longer a danger.

Letting go of the controls with a tired sigh, Jenna said, "Zen, damage report?"

"One of the force wall generators has been damaged," Zen reported. "Force wall no longer able to shield entire ship."

"We don't need the force wall now that they aren't firing at us any longer," Vila remarked.

Jenna ignored him. "Anything else, Zen?"

"One orbital drift compensator is damaged. One propulsion thrust unit damaged. Energy reserves running low. Energy banks one, two, and three are empty. Energy bank four is at eighty two percent."

"Estimated time for repair?"

"One point three four hours."

"Estimated time for recharge?"

"Thirty six hours."

"Even if the Federation is on the run, we still shouldn't stay here," Jenna said. "Vila might be right – Travis could have sent a signal. And that remaining ship certainly has."

"Then we go to Star One," Avon decided. Despite the painkiller he'd taken earlier, his head was throbbing and he was too tired to care about anything except safety. His quarrel with Blake about the Federation's central computer could wait. "Zen, set course for the eleventh sector."

"Specify speed," Zen prompted.

"Standard by two," Jenna said before Avon could speak. Avon looked over at her, and she said, "Anything else will drain the energy banks faster than they can recharge."

"Confirmed," Zen replied.

Avon was just about to announce that he was going to return to his cabin when Teyet spoke up. Although Avon had noticed her sitting in the lounge area at the front of the flight deck, she had remained silent for the entire battle, only gripping the cushions in quiet fear. Now she said, "I feel sick."

"I always feel sick after we've been through something like this," Vila said. "Maybe we both need some adrenaline and soma. Or maybe just soma. I think I've had enough adrenaline for a while."

"Vila, do not invite Teyet to follow your atrocious example," Avon said with all the menace he could muster.

"I need water," Teyet said, pushing herself off the sofa. "I need …"

She stopped speaking, then rushed from the flight deck, pounding frantically down the corridor with one hand clapped over her mouth. After a moment of surprise, Avon went after her, and was not surprised to find her on her hands and knees, vomiting in front of Jenna's cabin. Eventually, she finished heaving and leaned weakly to one side, gasping for breath.

Avon extended his hand to help her up. "Shall I take you to the medical unit, or would you prefer to rest in your cabin?"

"I feel so strange," Teyet murmured. "I don't want to be alone … please, Avon, can I stay with you?"

"Not if you're going to be sick again," he said sharply.

"I won't be," she said, a little too quickly for his taste. "I won't make any noise, you won't even know I'm there."

She swallowed, then added, "Please?"

There was something radiating from her, a strangely strong feeling of … sexual attraction? Even as Avon guided her to his cabin, leaving the mess for somebody else to clean up, part of his mind was wondering where the feeling came from. It didn't matter, he told himself. He could be content with simply being close to her, as he certainly wasn't feeling up to anything else, and especially not with somebody who looked as miserable as Teyet did. While Teyet got herself a quick swallow of water, he took off his boots, then laid down on his bed and scooted closer to the wall to make room for her. She took off her own shoes, then laid down next to him and turned onto her side to face the opposite direction. True to her word, she was quiet except for her breathing, and Avon closed his eyes in relief.

At some point, Avon became aware enough to register that Teyet was getting out of bed, but he fell asleep again almost immediately. Some time later, however, he awoke to strange sounds, and eventually realised that Teyet was back and trying unsuccessfully not to cry, or at least not make any noise doing it. He turned towards her, and she rolled over to face him.

"S-s-sorry," she sobbed. "I'm s-s-so scared!"

"Of what?" Avon asked.

"I can't feel the baby anymore – I can't feel the power at all!" Her voice wavered and she tried to get her sobs under control enough to speak again. "The power's dead, and maybe I'll die, too!"

She reached over to grip his hand. "I don't want to die alone, Avon!"

"You won't die alone." Her hand was warmer than he'd expected; she had a fever. It was a slight comfort to think that all her talk about dying was probably just some illness. The feeling of sexual attraction was gone, too. Perhaps he'd merely imagined it. Sitting up, Avon said, "I'll take you to the medical unit."

Teyet pushed herself upright, then wiped her eyes with her other hand. "I feel so strange, like half of me is missing."

Then she let go and got to her feet, wobbling worse than any drunk. She looked as though the ship had rocked beneath her, but Avon hadn't felt anything. Floundering around in an attempt to regain her balance, Teyet lost the battle and fell, crashing into the table on the other side of Avon's cabin.

He got up and knelt down next to her, noting that his own dizziness and even his headache had subsided. She lay curled on the floor, her hands clutching her forehead, and sobbed in pain. Well, at least she hadn't knocked herself out. Avon took hold of her forearms and guided her gently upright, then put his arm around her shoulders and led her out of his cabin. She still staggered, but he was able to keep her going in more or less the right direction.

"I can't even walk straight," she cried, going down on one knee. "What's wrong with me?"

Cally's door slid open and she peered out in concern, then came around to Teyet's other side and put her arm around the girl's waist.

"It's all right," she said soothingly. "We'll help you."

Together they managed to get Teyet to the medical unit and onto one of the beds. Avon watched as Cally smoothed Teyet's hair away from her face and attached medical sensors to each side of her forehead.

"That's a nasty bruise," she commented.

Teyet had almost stopped crying by then, and managed to explain, "I fell down!"

"You didn't let Vila give you anything to drink, did you?" Cally asked.

"I only drank water. I was so thirsty!"

"Computer?" Avon asked. "Diagnosis?"

"There are a large number of unknown organisms in the blood stream. Ninety one point one percent of them are dead. Patient's temperature is forty one point one degrees. Nothing else abnormal can be detected."

"Organisms? What kind of organisms?" Cally asked, but the computer merely repeated, "Unknown."

"I need more water," Teyet whispered.

Water. Suddenly, Avon remembered Travis saying, "I didn't drink the water." Travis had also said something before that, too, about faking it? The transition! The other woman had been worried that Travis would be sick, delirious, because he was going through a transition of some kind, but Travis had only been pretending.

"A symbiote," Avon breathed. "The organism inside her is a symbiote – and now it's dying."

"A symbiote?" Cally asked, and then said, "Of course. That would explain it."

"It must be in the water on Ferron, that's why she keeps asking for it," Avon went on. "Teyet, tell Cally about the transition."

Teyet sniffed a little, but her voice was steady. "I don't know all the details. Just that anybody who stays on Ferron more than a day gets sick for a while, but then they have the power, too."

"And what about anybody who leaves?" Cally asked.

"I don't know anybody who left," Teyet admitted. "We don't – we didn't talk much about leaving, especially not after the plague. But now I've left, and I can't feel the power anymore. I feel dizzy and strange, and I can't tell whether the baby is still there or not."

"So that was all it was," Avon said. "A symbiote, perhaps only able to reproduce through its host bodies, therefore giving them special powers to encourage it."

That must have been the sexual attraction he'd felt in the corridor, the last dying gasp of an organism using everything it had in one final desperate attempt to secure life. And it had definitely been what he'd felt in the presence of the Ferron women when they'd first met. It had only been the mention of computers that had tipped the scales in Teyet's favour; he would have been equally attracted to the older woman. He'd been used – he'd been drawn close to somebody against his will, leaving him vulnerable, and now he'd found out that the attraction had been artificial. He felt sick with the betrayal.

"Am I going to die?" Teyet begged. Avon glanced down at her, his feelings for the entire situation finding their focus, and when she reached out for his hand, he refused to take it.

"You are not going to die," he told her icily. "The fever is your only reaction to the demise of this symbiote, and Cally can give you something for that. Any dizziness you feel is probably psychosomatic. Otherwise, your vital signs are strong and you should feel better as soon as the remains of the symbiote are washed out of your system. You can go back to your cabin any time."

He turned to leave, but not before he'd seen Teyet's hurt face. Before he could reach the door, however, a new voice stopped him.

"Avon."

It was Blake. Avon realized he'd been lying on the other bed, quietly watching them the entire time. Now he looked back to where Blake was starting to get up.

"Would you mind helping me to my quarters?" Blake asked.

"Yes, I would," Avon snapped, and went out. Blake would want to talk on the way, and Avon did not want to talk. Pulling the door shut with more force than strictly necessary, Avon strolled briskly away from the medical unit.

For a few moments, he wondered where he would go. He did not want to return to his quarters, and Blake would find him too easily on the flight deck. It was probably still Vila's watch, too, and he didn't want to deal with Vila, either. No, he realized, enough time had gone by that Jenna would have taken over again, not that it mattered. Eventually, Avon found himself outside one of the sub-control rooms, and went in. There was probably something he could work on, maybe even improve. Even just checking things would keep his hands busy and give him something else to think about.


	5. Chapter 5

Avon didn't know how long he'd been working when the intercom on the wall squawked his name, but it had been long enough for him to become completely caught up in Liberator's circuitry, and it took him a moment to respond. Impatient, the voice came again.

"Avon!"

He hit the button. "Yes, Jenna."

"If you're well enough to be fiddling around down there, you're well enough to come up here and stand your watch," Jenna told him.

"I am not _fiddling around_," Avon protested, wondering only for a moment how she knew exactly what he was doing. Zen must have told her. "I'll be there in five minutes."

Halfway there, he realized he was walking around in his socks, and went back to his cabin to get his boots. Teyet's shoes were still there where she'd left them, and he crushed the guilty feeling that threatened to rise up when he saw them. On his way out, he picked them up and deposited them outside his door. She'd get them back somehow. Then he went to the flight deck.

"Just keep Liberator on present speed and course," Jenna told him when he arrived. "Nothing faster, the energy banks still haven't recharged completely. And if anything looks even as dangerous as Vila, go around it. We're not in any hurry."

"Aren't we?" Avon shot back. "I thought Blake couldn't wait to destroy Star One."

"Blake still needs some recharging, too, I think," Jenna said with the hint of a smile, then left the flight deck. Avon took her place at the flight console. "Zen, how long before we reach the eleventh sector?"

"At present speed, six days, ten hours, and five minutes," Zen reported.

"That should give Blake plenty of time," Avon murmured.

"That should give all of us plenty of time."

Avon glanced around in surprise to see that Cally had come onto the flight deck and was now approaching Zen's display.

"Zen," she asked, "are there any habitable planets along our present course?"

"The nearest habitable planet is BHK-4," Zen replied. "It was marked as a possibility for colonization, but currently has no population."

"Well, that won't do," Cally said. "I'm sorry, Zen, I was not precise. What is the nearest populated planet?"

"The nearest populated planet is Zircaster, but it would require a detour of two days and two hours to reach it," Zen said.

"Zircaster," Cally repeated thoughtfully, and Avon said, "Why do you want to know?"

"Blake was asking," Cally told him. "I'm not sure he'll want to suggest Zircaster to Teyet, though."

Avon caught the inference immediately. "So now she wants to leave, does she? Well. The Liberator is not exactly a suitable place for children."

"She didn't say anything, it was Blake," Cally said. After a moment, she came over and placed her hand on Avon's arm. "Oh, Avon, you have the right to feel used, but don't be angry with Teyet. She is just as much a victim as you were – probably more."

Because Avon did not know how to answer that, he merely gave Cally his iciest glare. She squeezed his arm, offered him a quick smile, then let go and walked away.

xxxxx

It wasn't until the next day that he saw Teyet again. He'd finished his watch on the flight deck and had gone down to the dining area for something to eat before heading to the sub-control room again. She was the only person there when he came in, sitting at the table closest to the food dispenser. Hearing his steps, Teyet glanced up, and the expression on her face turned distinctly unfriendly as she recognized him. They looked at each other for a moment, waiting for the other to speak, and then Teyet stood up suddenly. She wobbled only once and caught herself on the nearest table. It reminded Avon of when she'd fallen in his cabin, and his eyes flicked automatically to her forehead. The bruise was gone; Cally must have treated it with the tissue regenerator. Glaring back at him, Teyet straightened up and turned almost sideways in an exaggerated attempt to stay as far away from Avon as possible on her way out the door.

Nobody on board the Liberator had ever walked out on Avon like that before, and he was surprised that it hurt. Ignoring the feeling, telling himself he was imagining it, he got his food and sat down, choosing a place where he couldn't see the tray that Teyet had left behind.

He'd almost finished eating when Blake came in. Blake was walking more slowly than he usually did, but otherwise he looked fine, and he smiled when he saw who else was in the dining area. "Avon!"

"Blake," Avon said, less enthusiastically.

"I wanted to have a word with you," Blake said as he considered the buttons on the food dispenser, then made his choice. "I need your advice."

"And will you take it if I give it to you?" Avon asked. "Or shall we merely pretend that we've already had this conversation so that you can do whatever you've been planning all along?"

"That's just it," Blake said, bringing his tray over to the table and sitting down opposite Avon. "I haven't got a plan just yet."

Suddenly certain that they were not talking about Star One, or even the Liberator, Avon waited, and as he'd expected, Blake went on.

"It's about Teyet," Blake said. "Cally told me she doesn't want to stay on board any longer."

"If you're asking about the nearest populated planet, it's Zircaster," Avon said. "Cally already asked Zen. And the next one after that would be Chelus."

"I wasn't asking that." Blake sounded slightly annoyed.

"No? Then what were you asking?"

"I'm asking if you have any objections to going to Destiny."

Avon frowned. "Why should I?"

"I thought about offering to take Teyet there. We know some of the people there, she wouldn't be alone among strangers."

"I repeat, Blake, why should I have any objections?" Avon asked icily.

Blake gave him a look that he couldn't interpret. "If you were to change your mind, want to make it up with her, for instance … well, we'd be far off course from Star One."

"I have no intention of changing my mind, and there is nothing to make up," Avon told him. "And as for being far off course from Star One, I should think that would affect you more than me."

"She's the mother of your child, Avon. Doesn't that affect you?"

"If Travis had not been there, we would now all be far away from the mothers of our children, Blake," Avon pointed out. "This current situation does not affect me more than that would have."

"If Travis had not been there, we would have left them surrounded by friends and family," Blake said. "They wouldn't be alone in the galaxy and rejected by the very person they should be closest to."

That stung, but Avon tried not to show it. Blake pressed his advantage by continuing. "But if Travis hadn't been there, we'd never have found out about the symbiote, never have known we were being manipulated and used, and we could have left there with happy memories, thinking it was all …"

He trailed off, searching for the right word.

"Natural?" Avon suggested mockingly. "Normal?"

"Thinking that the women accepted us because of who we were, not what we were," Blake finally finished. "Because they liked us, not just because we were male bodies."

"But that is what we were," Avon said. "That's all we were. They did not _like_ us, certainly not for our sparkling personalities."

Blake made a small shrug. "But there was always the possibility that they could have. And I think Teyet liked you afterwards. Remember how she said she might stay, because you liked computers, too?"

Avon did not want to be reminded of that and looked away, saying nothing.

"Well, maybe it's for the best," Blake said, surprising him enough that he looked back. Blake went on. "After all, there's always the possibility that Teyet would reject you now if she really did get to know you well enough."

Even though Avon had never consciously considered the idea, he reacted anyway."Shut up, Blake."

"Probably best to push her away first instead of running the risk that she'd stop liking you if you started treating her like Vila."

"I would never treat her like Vila," Avon snarled. "She's much more intelligent."

Blake smiled as though they had come to a satisfactory agreement. "Well, there you go then! You both have something in common, now go build on it!"

"You are not a puppeteer, Blake, and I am not your puppet. You cannot force me into a relationship that I do not want," Avon snarled, but it didn't seem to have any affect on the man.

"This is your chance, Avon!" Blake urged. "You can have a family! A wife and a son!"

"Are you telling me what I want, Blake, or what you want?" Avon asked, and it was enough. Blake gave in, sinking back in his seat with an expression of defeat.

"You're right. I'm telling you what I would want in your place," he said quietly, then stood up, taking his tray with him. At the door, he stopped and turned back, just for a moment. "Except I would have had a daughter."

After Blake had gone, Avon stalked to the sub-control room. Doing something with the ship would help calm him down and make him more objective. As he worked, his thoughts gradually stopped whirling and started to make some kind of sense. He no longer wanted to get emotionally close to Teyet –- if he ever had – not after the betrayal of finding out that their physical relationship had been artificially manipulated, and certainly not after the way she'd walked out of the dining area just a few minutes ago. And what was the point in even trying, anyway? According to Blake, she'd already made up her mind to leave. It was probably for the best. As he'd told Cally, the Liberator was not a suitable place for children. It would be easier for everybody if she and the baby were safe on some planet somewhere, instead of being a distraction that needed special protection on board the Liberator.

On the other hand, she was good with computers, and she didn't have to be his wife, or even his lover, to duplicate her research here. The Liberator – no, not just the Liberator could benefit from it, they all would. But he'd probably have to apologize before they could work together. Avon grimaced. He found apologies difficult and did not like giving them. Apologies meant he'd made a mistake, and mistakes showed that he was vulnerable, which was not how he wanted to be seen. This particular apology could also be potentially humiliating. Avon took a long time to consider just how valuable Teyet's research could be, weighing it against the risk to himself, and finally decided that the apology was inevitable. That meant he should get it over with as soon as possible.

With the help of Zen, he tracked Teyet to her cabin. It was late, according to shipboard time, but not too late, and Avon had no qualms about standing outside her door and calling her name.

"Who is it?" she called back.

"It's Avon."

There was a long pause, and then Teyet opened the door. She stood there, her hand hovering near the controls, and glared hostilely at him.

"May I come in?" he asked.

"Why?" she retorted.

"Because I don't want to apologize out here in the corridor."

Teyet considered, then said, "Do it anyway."

Well, it was her choice. Avon shrugged mentally, then said, "I am … sorry … that I reacted the way I did when I found out about the symbiote."

Teyet waited without speaking, but her expression clearly indicated she was hoping for more. Avon pulled himself together to offer the only thing he could.

"I hope you can accept my apology and that we can work together again," he said, trying not to let the difficulty he had in forming the words show in any way.

"I don't know if I can," Teyet said. "You really hurt me, Avon."

"I know," Avon admitted, but he did not apologize a second time.

Teyet looked away, and when she spoke again, her voice was a harsh whisper, as though she too were having difficulty speaking. "I thought, of all the people on board this ship, I could expect more from you. I really thought we …"

Her voice trailed off, and she bunched her hands to fists. Finally, she managed to speak again. "I don't know. I have to think about this."

Avon nodded silently, and turned to go. He was aware of her watching as he walked away, and it wasn't until he was halfway down the corridor that he finally heard her door slide closed.

xxxxx

It was at breakfast when Avon saw Teyet again. She came in while he was eating, and for a moment, they both stopped to look at each other. Then, stiffly and quite tentatively, Teyet said, "I accept your apology, Avon, and I think we can still work together. I'm willing to try, I mean."

"All right." Avon waited until she'd finished her meal, then led the way to the flight deck and Orac. As they worked, the awkwardness between them gradually faded and Teyet became more animated, the passion returning to her eyes. Even Avon felt himself relaxing, and after a while, the only clue he had to the passing of time was whenever Teyet insisted they take a break and have something to eat. She wanted to eat much more frequently than Avon did, but he acquiesced each time without too much protest.

Eventually, Teyet yawned, then announced, "I think that's about all I can do with Orac to-day."

Avon looked up. "It's not that late."

"Not by your standards, maybe." Teyet smiled for the first time that day. "I've only got enough energy left to get into bed."

Avon was about to tell her to go on, he could continue by himself, when she lowered her voice a little and added, "Your cabin or mine?"

Caught by surprise, Avon hesitated for a moment before being able to answer, "No."

Teyet's smile wavered and confusion showed on her face, but Avon could tell she wasn't convinced yet. They'd been working so well together that she had probably confused it with emotional intimacy. To make things absolutely clear, he said it again. "No. We will cooperate on this project, that is all. Nothing more."

"Then why did you apologise?" she asked. Pain and anger had taken over her expression. "If all you wanted was – that's it, isn't it? My computer research. That's the only reason why you apologised."

"Yes," Avon admitted.

"I can't believe I fell for it," Teyet said, her voice becoming louder and angrier. "I can't believe how stupid I am!"

Avon waited, acutely aware that Vila was also on the flight deck. The other man had been dozing, as he usually did, but Teyet's voice had woken him up and Avon saw him stretch a little. Thankfully, however, he did not speak, just watched.

"If you reject me, Avon, then I reject you!" Teyet exclaimed. "Orac, erase every bit of information pertaining to the brain wave—"

"Orac, no!" Avon cut in. "Do not erase any information!"

"Well, make up your mind!" the computer protested. "Shall I erase something or shan't I?"

"Yes!" Teyet tried again, but Avon, unwilling to lose so much, grabbed the back of her head with one hand and slammed his other hand over her mouth, holding it shut.

"Orac, do not erase any information—" he stopped with a grunt because Teyet had kicked him hard in the shin and was trying to bite his fingers. She'd also grabbed his wrist with both hands and was digging her fingers into his tendons, but he managed to ignore her attempts for as long as it took him to say,"—on the brain wave research project. This order has no countermand."

Teyet kicked him again. He let go – the danger was over anyway – and stepped back out of range. They glared at each other, then Teyet gave an almighty screech and raced around to the other side of Orac. Before Avon realized what she was doing, she had grabbed Orac and heaved it off its table. The computer was too heavy for her to lift easily, however, and she staggered backwards a few steps in her attempt to get it higher than her chest. Coming around the table, Avon reached out to grasp Orac's sides.

"I'll destroy it!" she screamed, trying to wrestle it away from him. "I won't let you have it!"

Avon pulled backwards as well, and for a moment, Teyet stumbled towards him. Then she kicked him in the shin yet again and simultaneously gave a mighty tug in the opposite direction. Avon's grip had already loosened because of the pain, but he wasn't quick enough to let go completely as Teyet lost her balance and fell backwards. They landed in a heap on the floor of the flight deck.

Full of dread, Avon got to his feet. Orac had fallen onto Teyet's head and wobbled precariously on top of it. When Avon pulled it away, he saw that Teyet had managed to turn her face away at the last moment, but there was still blood streaming from her nose and bruises forming. Her eyes were open, but she wasn't moving just yet.

"Teyet?" Vila came around from behind him. "Are you all right? Oh, dear. I can't stand the sight of blood. I'm coming over all funny, Avon."

"Shut up, Vila, if that's all you can say!" Avon snarled. He placed Orac back on its table. "She's probably just dazed, but one of us should take her to the medical unit."

Because Vila showed no signs of helping, Avon reluctantly reached out to take Teyet's arm, but she pulled away from his grip and hissed, "Don't touch me!"

Avon let go in a deliberate gesture, showing her his empty hands and backing away. Teyet sat up, leaning on one hand, and raised the other to her face, wincing as she touched her nose. Tears began suddenly to run down her face, but she still managed a glare and a hoarse whisper. "I hate you, I hate you! I don't want any part of you! When I get to Destiny, I'm going to have – have an abortion!"

She said the word at once both hesitantly and provocatively, as though she were a child using a bad word for the first time in an attempt to shock and hurt. And Avon did feel a twinge of something before he tamped the feeling down and told himself it was probably for the best. Close ties, even not-so-close familial ties, could be used against them.

"You don't care, do you?" Teyet went on, noting his lack of visible reaction. "You just don't care. I wish I'd destroyed Orac! Maybe that would have hurt you as much as you hurt me."

Avon kept his face impassive, not willing to show his vulnerability by conceding that she was right, and after a moment, Teyet's shoulders slumped and she looked away. At length, she started to get up, and didn't resist when Vila helped. They left the flight deck in silence and Avon waited until they were gone before he turned back to Orac.

"Orac, damage report."

"I am undamaged," Orac replied, and Avon relaxed ever so slightly in relief.

xxxxx

"Blake told me he'd asked you to make it up with Teyet, but I don't think this is what he had in mind," Cally said. "Are you all right? What about Orac?"

"No damage done," Avon said in answer to both questions. He'd taken Orac to his cabin the night before, to keep the computer safe in case Teyet should want to have another go at destroying her research. Now, he'd taken it with him to the sub-control room with the faint hope of continuing the brain-wave project, but his enthusiasm for the entire thing had died overnight. And then Cally had come in.

"This is not what I'd had in mind, either," he said, releasing a sigh. "I apologised. She … read too much into it."

"It must have been hard for her, growing up without men," Cally mused.

"The plague only happened three years ago," Avon protested. "That is hardly 'growing up without men.'"

"It probably made a difference, though, especially to someone as young as she is."

"She certainly acted like a child," Avon remembered. He hadn't gone to medical yet to treat the contusions on his shin, and they ached whenever he moved his leg. Annoying, yes, but hardly damaging. He could wait until he was certain that he wouldn't run into Teyet in the medical unit.

"True," Cally conceded. "At least she wasn't too badly hurt. Her nose was only bruised, not broken, and she didn't even have a concussion."

"She was lucky," Avon replied.

"Physically." Cally paused. "She told me she'll never trust another man again."

"Well now, that might not be such a bad thing," Avon said with a quick, mirthless smile.

"Wouldn't it?" Cally asked. "I think it would be a great tragedy, especially if she teaches her son the same thing."

"She won't," Avon said shortly. "She told me she would get an abortion."

"I don't think she'd do that," Cally mused. "From what I gather, abortion was rarely allowed on Ferron, even before the plague. There might even have been some kind of stigma about it. She probably only said it to hurt you, Avon."

"I know," he replied.

"Would it hurt you, if she actually did it?" Cally asked unexpectedly, looking into his eyes. It made Avon feel uncomfortable, and he responded with a defensive question of his own. "Why do you ask?"

"Because it would hurt me greatly if I lost a child," she said. "And I would be hurt, too, if you lost yours, especially in these circumstances."

"It would be better," Avon said, sidestepping the actual question. "There's too much risk. If the Federation ever found out … remember how Blake reacted when Travis held his uncle hostage? We'd be even more vulnerable with children."

Cally laid her hand silently on Avon's arm for a long moment, then gave him a quick, sad smile and walked out. Avon watched her go, wondering if she'd sensed … but of course there was nothing for her to sense. Nothing at all.

xxxxx

The journey to Destiny seemed to take forever, but at last it was over and they were orbiting the planet. Avon hadn't seen much of Teyet during that time; she had apparently gone out of her way to stay out of sight. The one time they had met by accident on the flight deck, she'd turned bright red, then stammered an excuse to leave her conversation with Jenna before fleeing.

Jenna had given him a wry look and said with unexpected candour, "I'll be glad when she's gone and we can get back to normal."

"Yes," Avon had replied. Teyet had seemed more embarrassed than angry, which Avon thought was a distinct improvement. At least she hadn't looked like she was about to attack either him or Orac again. But just because she couldn't do it in his presence didn't mean she wasn't plotting something in his absence, and he'd continued to keep the computer under his watchful eye at all times. He hadn't got back to the brain wave project, though, and once or twice, he found himself wondering if he ever would.

Now they were getting ready to teleport Blake and Teyet down to the surface, and the others had gathered in the teleport section to say good-bye. Blake had even invited Avon to come, perhaps hoping for a last-minute reconciliation, but Avon had refused, stating that he preferred to wait on the flight deck. He sat on the couch next to Orac's table, his arms folded across his chest, and silently willed the process to go faster so that they could get back on route to Star One and the Federation computer.

Cally and Vila came back together and sat down across from Avon. After a moment of silence, Cally jogged Vila's arm. "What did Teyet tell you to say to Avon?"

Vila looked up, his eyes eager, but his manner hesitant.

"I can guess it wasn't an apology," Avon replied, but his curiosity was piqued.

"I can leave if it was a personal message," Cally volunteered. Avon almost wished she would, but now Jenna had joined them on the flight deck, too, looking as curious as he felt.

"Oh, it wasn't really personal," Vila replied. "She just said to tell you that she was seriously thinking about my suggestion."

"Really." Avon refused to ask what the suggestion was.

"Yes, we all heard that part," said Jenna, coming up to stand behind them, "but what did you suggest, Vila?"

"Come on, Vila," Cally put in. "You made her smile – I'd like to know what you said."

Vila stood up suddenly. "Anybody for a drink?"

"Vila!" the two women exclaimed simultaneously, and Vila scuttled closer to Jenna as though for protection. His eyes were still gleaming, though, and Avon could tell he really wanted to blurt it all out.

"All right." Vila finally felt safe enough to speak. "I told her she should forget the abortion. If she really wanted to annoy Avon, she should have the baby and name it after me."

Jenna and Cally both burst out laughing, and even Vila grinned, despite continuing to watch Avon closely for any signs of an impending attack. Avon stood up, just for the satisfaction of watching the other man take a nervous step back. But as he walked around the other way to get to his station, he smiled, too.

Because sometimes there were situations in which he could either laugh or cry, and Avon never cried.

The End


End file.
